PROTEST: UNOCAL OUT OF BURMA

For Immediate Release April 25, 1994
Contact: Cynthia Rust (206) 632-4326, Greenpeace
Pager # at the Protest (415) 280-2141
UNOCAL LINKED TO FOREST RUIN AND FORCED LABOR IN BURMA
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PROTEST AT UNOCAL SHAREHOLDER'S MEETING
Los Angeles, April 22, 1994 (GP) Calling on Unocal Corporation
to end its joint venture with the Burmese junta, Greenpeace,
Rainforest Action Network (RAN) and the Burma Forum will
demonstrate at Unocal's corporate headquarters during the annual
shareholder's meeting. The protest is focused on Unocal's
investement in a natural gas pipeline through rainforest in
Burma.
At 9:00 a.m. on Monday April 25, at 1201 5th St. in downtown Los
Angeles, activists will conduct a high profile airborne
demonstration. Large photos depicting the chain-gang forced labor
used in Burma to build roads and clear forest will be creatively
displayed.
Forced labor is currently being used to provide infra- structure
for a pipeline from the Andaman Sea through Burma's Tenasserim
division to Thailand. Inside the meeting, shareholders will be
discussing a resolution requesting Unocal to publicly disclose all
of its activities in Burma.
The activists are protesting Unocal's 47.5 percent share in
a natural gas concession in Burma because of human rights abuses
and forest destruction wrought by the country's ruling military
regime, the State, Law and Order Restoration Council (SLORC).
SLORC.
In March 1994, the United Nations Commission on Human Rights
condemned the SLORC for torturing Burmese people, undertaking
summary executions, using forced labor, arresting and imprisoning
people for political reasons, and for the abuse of women.
In addition to today's demonstration, Greenpeace will release
a report on the connection between the gas pipeline, human rights
abuses and destruction to the tropical forest. The report, based
on a recent visit to Burma, is centered around interviews with
indigenous people, such as the Karen and Mon who live in the
pipeline area.
"This proposed pipeline encapsulates all that is wrong with
Burma under the death grip of the SLORC," said Pamela Wellner,
Greenpeace forest campaigner. This includes slave labor, forced
relocation and looting of villages by the military and
environmental degradation of the forest.
Unocal Out of Burma/2
"Unocal can't keep justifying its involvement with this junta
by saying they are providing employment," Wellner said. "The
truth is, they are supporting slavery and forest ruin. This will
not be kept a secret for 15 years like their Californian oil
spill; too many people know of these atrocities."
The Center for Constitutional Rights, a public interest law
firm, in a recent letter to the CEO of Unocal stated "...Unocal
could be held legally liable for deaths, injuries, property damage
or other harm arising out your company's operations in Burma.
Unocal denies that their investment is related to the human rights
abuses.
Greenpeace, RAN and the Burma Forum are asking Unocal and
other foreign companies such as Total of France, the other partner
in the offshore gas concession, to pull their operations out of
Burma. This is in solidarity with the National Coalition
Government for the Union of Burma, the democratic coalition which
has not been allowed to take power. The NCGUB and the ethnic
nationalities are asking companies not to invest with SLORC and to
hold their business interest in Burma until a democratic
government is in power.
"If the Unocal shareholders were aware of the human rights
atrocities perpetrated on their behalf, I am sure they would not
condone Unocal doing
business with the SLORC," said Naw Louisa Benson, co-founder of
the Burma Forum and a member of the Karen ethnic group whose land
borders the pipeline area.
Much of the slave labor in the pipeline area is connected to
the extension of the "Death Railway" originally built with the
forced labor of the Allied Forces during the World War II. In
February, Mon officials reported that over 35,000 people had been
conscripted to work on the railway in deplorable conditions.
"Only one small tin of rice is provided to the workers and
many people are dying of some form of dysentery because of
unsanitary living conditions." said an official of the New Mon
State Party. The forest is also being logged to provide sleepers
for the railroad.
In 1988, SLORC gunned down over 2000 pro-democracy
protesters, causing most western nations such as the US. to stop
foreign aid. Since that time SLORC has been selling off its
natural resources, such as timber, oil and gas, to gain cash to
buy armaments to further suppress its people. Investment by oil
companies is considered the largest single source of foreign
currency to the SLORC.
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To: conf:rainfor.general conf:reg.burma
Subject: Unocal Out
Protest:
Unocal Out of Burma
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>From gptfc Sun Apr 24 17:57:05 1994
>From gptfc Sun Apr 24 17:57:05 1994
Received: by igc.apc.org (8.6.9/Revision: 1.146 )
id RAA03060; Sun, 24 Apr 1994 17:57:05 -0700
Date: Sun, 24 Apr 1994 17:57:05 -0700
Message-Id: <199404250057.RAA03060@xxxxxxxxxxx>
To: ranla
Subject: unocal press release
Status: R
Dear Cynthia,
Here is the press release, We will have a pager # 415-280-2141,
at the site. that is the one on the press release. Our cell
phone number is 818-414-4580, you can give that to media, that
call you and who want to talk to use.